What Bonnie said is 100% right on. The Prius totally rocks. It is THE best
car on the market, IMHO. Like Bonnie, I also bought it to "walk the walk".
I have no problems with power -- the car is pretty "zippy" and I have no
problem taking hills or speeding up real fast to get on the highway. (The
parkways in Long Island have ridiculously short entrance ramps, so you have
to be able to haul _ss to get on the parkway without getting killed.)
I am getting approximately 45-50 mpg right now and I am not stingy with the
AC. In the winter, the mileage is less, approximately 36-44 mpg.
I am at the end of my lease of a 2003. I have not had one single mechanical
problem with the car. I have also kept up with the regular maintenance
schedule, which is service every 7500 miles, not every 3000 miles.
I am getting a new Prius for sure. The new Prius (2004 and later versions)
get even better mileage -- they say 55-60 mpg, and they are really cool and
gadety, with Bluetooth technology for wireless cell phone use, and a push
button start, etc. If you get the navigation system (which I will), you get
a back up camera that comes on when you put the car in reverse so you can
see what's behind you while you're backing up.
I don't know why they say the cars wouldn't sell. The demand, here, is such
that you nearly always have to wait to get a Prius. Very few, if any, are
ever available to buy and drive off the lot. I ordered the new Prius and
expect to have to wait two months before it comes in. I see alot of Priuses
on the road too.
My two cents. I laugh at the fools filling up their Hummers at the gas
station.
Eva
On 7/30/06, Bonnie & Bill Morgan <wmorgan972@ameritech.net> wrote:
>
> We need to hear from Eva on this too.
>
> I have had my Prius since 2000. We too bought it to walk the walk. (We
> were also among the first to try a rotary engine as well when they came
> out
> as a cleaner burning engine.) Even though the engine is smaller and the
> electric motor is not terribly large, when you couple the two up for a
> burst
> of speed or sustained speed, you don't get any lag. You just GO as fast
> and
> as quick as any other car on the road. They do NOT lack power. Anyone
> who
> has ever given one a proper test can tell you they will get up and go if
> you
> kick the gas pedal. Just like every other gas powered vehicle, your
> mileage
> will go down. I get 40-50mpg right now in mixed driving. Now that isn't
> as
> good as what was initially advertised when we bought the car, but it is
> still a good deal better than anyone else we know is getting for their
> $3.00
> per gallon. If I go highway all the way and fairly level road conditions,
> I
> get better mileage. If I do in-town driving, low speeds, I also get
> higher
> mpg. Although it pulls hills (as when we went through the mountains)
> without any trouble, it costs mileage to do so (though not as much as a
> conventionally powered car.) It all depends on where the testing is done
> as
> to whether you get the same mileage. We've had a number of conventionally
> powered cars that didn't get the mileage they were purported to get. Part
> of that is due to topography, part to climate and part to driving
> style. It
> is no different with a hybrid.
>
> As for the market for them, nobody driving the luxury vehicles can really
> complain about the pricing. It is more difficult for lower income folks
> to
> get into one for certain, but the market IS there or there wouldn't be so
> many hybrids on back order. My Prius is guaranteed 100,000 miles on the
> power train and many competitive gas powered vehicles don't do that. And
> I
> know a lot of conventionally powered vehicles that haven't made it to
> 100,000 miles, period. The story is still out on how long you can keep
> one
> running. We are just nearing 80,000.00 but we are not seeing any problems
> other than the occasional burned out light bulb.
>
> If there were any way DH and I could afford another hybrid today, we would
> purchase it in a heart beat! It is quiet. It is CLEAN/GREEN with
> emissions
> so low, the locals don't even test for them anymore on a Prius. (Our
> first
> time through, they took forever trying to get something to register on
> their
> meters and they kept trying to re-start it when the gasoline engine shut
> down and it was just running on the electric motor.) I imagine we'll be
> looking for something to replace DH's car when I can find work again.
>
> There are Prius and other hybrid web-sites. You might want to go read
> some
> of the comments from other consumers. I think you would be pleasantly
> surprised. Besides, the hybrid industry is relatively new. I look for
> magnitudes of improvements to make them even more efficient in the future.
> Just in the few years we've had our hybrid, great strides have been made
> in
> mileage and other features.
>
> I'd like to know what kinds of vehicles the authors of the research and
> the
> author of the editorial drive. For many people, it seems, a car is
> something very personal and tied to their status/personalities.
>
> Blessings,
> Bonnie (SW OH - zone 5)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [mailto:owner-gardenchat@hort.net] On
> Behalf
> Of Kitty
> Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 10:00 AM
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Subject: [CHAT] hybrids
>
> Interesting editorial in today's paper. The author cited research done by
> Reason magazine, National Geographic, CNW Marketing, Weekly Standard
> magazine. NG I've heard of but I know little about the other 3, so I
> wonder
> if you hybrid drivers might refute or agree with the various parts of it.
>
> "...the market doesn't support them. They may be PC, but hybrids would
> get
> nowhere w/o govt and mfg subsidies. Car companies take losses on the
> cars.
> Hybrids cost about $6000 more to make than similar gas-powered cars and
> consumers won't shell that out - whatever their politics - and so buyers
> require the subsidies"... "..hybrids lack power..." "They don't get near
> the great gas mileage we're told they do"... "after a 2yr study on 'dust
> to
> dust' energy costs of the cars - meaning the energy to plan, build, sell,
> drive, and dispose of - the hybrids don't stack up well against
> gas-powered
> counterparts...don't last as long - around 100,000 miles vs 300,000 for
> traditional powered vehicles"
>
>
> Kitty
> neIN, Zone 5
>
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